Miami Gives Bonus Floor Space To Overtown Project

By Deserae del Campo
A 30-story office tower planned for Overtown received praise and bonus floor space last week from Miami commissioners, who hope the project will attract businesses and provide jobs for the area.

The Logik Tower, 530 NW First St., was to include 105,106 square feet of office space, 4,676 square feet of retail and 298 parking spaces. The bonus will add 21,000 square feet to the total.

According to Miami’s planning records, Overtown has 340,722 square feet of office space under construction and 155,732 square feet more in the pipeline.

"This is a great office product that is beautifully designed for this area," said Lucia Dougherty, attorney representing Urbana Development LLC. "There are over 200 people on list waiting for this office product in Overtown."

"Besides the architecture – and it’s striking design for this area," said Jorge Arevalo, developer with Ice Development Group and principal of Urbana, "the concept we gave is the ability to be in the heart of Overtown with close proximity to downtown Miami and Brickell."

"This project is definitely taking a step in the right direction in ways to attract business and companies in the area," said Commissioner Michelle Spence-Jones, "and with the retail component it can hopefully provide job opportunities for residents."

Logik is for a small corporation or a small law firm that wants to own office space for $200,000 to $300,000, said Mr. Arevalo.

The city commission last week approved developers’ request of a floor-area ratio bonus of 4.6 in the Southeast Overtown-Park West Commercial-Residential district. The bonus increases the floor space available to Logik.

"The increase in the floor area ratio gave us more square footage for the building," said Mr. Arevalo. "Instead of 109,000 square feet, we now have 130,000 total square feet for the whole building."

"We got our Class II permit approved," he said, "and now we are rushing with the construction documents so we can hopefully get this project off the ground." Advertisement